I am a volunteer ref for local roller derby leagues.
This means that when I show up to officiate I don’t find myself in a big locker room where I can hang my stripes up and stretch out. In fact, sometimes we are lucky to fit us all in where they have us.
Being an official at these games can lead to downtime for us between games and at half-time. It can be 10 minutes to over an hour depending on the events.
Well this leads into me saying how much I love mint tin games.
I have a gear box that I carry everything in. Shirt, skates, gear, extra wheels, tools, basically anything and everything I need in an emergency. So that doesn’t leave a lot of room for me to have some big box board game. The fact that these games literally fit in a mint tin means that I can store them without having to carefully reorganize everything to make it all fit.
Now to touch on another wonderful part and that is the time aspect of these games. There is a very little learning curve which is a plus because I don’t want to spend the whole half explaining this great game just to have to pack it all up.
Also with the rules modified to be able to stop at any time and be able to quickly do some quick addition and have a winner is beautiful.
So for example, this past weekend we were stuffed in a small hallway. Just enough rooms for a couple of chairs and standing/sitting room only. So with the 20 minute half, I was able to set up Pirates, explain the rules, go through a demo turn or two, and have 10 minutes of play which was enough to have the other ref I played win.
Rinse and repeat during intermission between the first and second game. Get the call that we have to report back to the track and it’s just pack it up, throw it back in my gear box, and no worries.
Let me say that this game is a blessing to me and refs in the locker rooms.
Thanks subQuark for the great games!
“Scooby” Drew Ziegler
